Hello folks, Gus Givens here with an update on the events that have been unfolding in Ethan.

The Gal Fed have begun their press conference several hours ago, and a number of details have already emerged. Firstly the seismic activity detected on Metram was indeed not the result of weapons tests but an entirely new technology that they have been developing in partnership with Deep Core Mining.

As part of DCMs Tartarus project, they have been looking into ways to cheaply and safely exploit rare mineral deposits deep below a planet’s surface, sometimes miles into the crust, with funding from the Gal Fed they have developed a utility which they are simply referring to as the Bunker.

We managed to briefly interview a spokesperson from the company who revealed that the Bunker was in fact a multi-purposec mining and construction platform designed to drill down through a planets crust to a sufficient depth, then anchor itself into the rock and construct a large sustainable habitat which could be used as a hub for subterranean mining operations. The deployment of this structure was what was detected on the planets various seismographs.

While the Bunker was initially developed for mining the Gal Fed believe it has a range of applications from a sustainable living environment to enhancing various defensive positions, as part of their agreement the Gal Fed funded the development of the project while Deep Core provided the expertise to build it, on the condition that they later release the designs for such a structure to the public.

When asked if Deep Core Mining regretted the decision the spokesperson simply laughed, admitting that while they would not have a monopoly on the technology, they would still make significant revenue from auctioning off the schematics and that when it came to potential enhancements in future they were still “on the cutting edge”.

Having seen the size of the Bunker designs personally it is easily as your average star ship with a price tag well over a hundred million, it is likely that other than large companies and governments the only other beneficiaries will be owners of large settlements who will be able to deploy one, creating a large sustainable habitat the size of a small city below their settlement, which they will be able to move basic services into such as power generation, resource and housing facilities, freeing up the above ground space for other projects and making the settlements vital infrastructure safer in case of attack.

The gal Fed have also been working in concert with the Naristro to develop an alien variant of the technology for use in the expanse on expanse settlements, which will no doubt require a variety of alien technology to construct, however the benefits in both cases are I’m told significant.

Well folks it’s nice to have some good news to report for once, it makes a change from having to read the latest casualty reports from the front lines in AI occupied systems, perhaps there is still hope for humanity yet, good night folks and stay safe.